Microsoft released an updated to the Azure Server Management Tools (SMT) and this improves some of the existing tools such as File Explorer and Device Manager. But the big announcement here is, that you now can manage your Hyper-V Server and Virtual Machines directly from Microsoft Azure from where ever you are. This is one of the great examples of using cloud solutions to extend your on premise environment, By using Management as a Service you basically don’t need to updated anything, you just got this new feature available in the Azure portal and you can start using it.

In this update to the Server Management Tools, Microsoft supports the following VM management functionality:

Start/Shutdown/Turn off/Pause/Resume

Save State/Delete Saved State

Take/Apply & rename checkpoints

You can see the Virtual Machines on which are running on the Hyper-V server

Last year I had the chance to speak for the first time at ExpertsLive.nl in Amsterdam. Today I am proud that I will be speaking at ExpertsLive.nl again this year. Next week I will be presenting in two session about Windows Server 2016 together with Michael Rüefli.

Greatest Server OS Hits; best of Server 2016

In this presentation we will guide you through the highly anticipated innovations including: •Hyper-V 2016 features •Nano Server •Storage Spaces Direct •Storage Replica •Windows Server Containers •And more

The future of your datacenter: Nano Server and Container

Nano Server is the future of Windows Server. With Nano Server Microsoft created the foundation for Windows Server for the next 20 year. In this session you will get an overview about Nano Server and see some great live demos how you can deploy, manage and operate Nano Server as well as creating applications for it. Get a better understanding of Nano Server and see how you deploy, manage and operate it.

In the past years I was building several Hyper-V environments together with Enterprise customers and with service providers. In a lot of cases customer wanted more security in there Cloud and Virtualization environment. Security becoming a even more critical part in your datacenter and with a high virtualization rate, it gets even more critical and complex to manage. Especially when Virtual Machines can move from on cluster to another or from one datacenter to another. 5nine is one of the vendors who has a great solution, for this challenges. A couple of years back I wrote a blog post about 5Nine Cloud Security version 4.0. 5nine Cloud Security is a unified security and compliance solution designed to specifically address every Hyper-V security vulnerability across every virtual resource.

Last week at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft released Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V 2016, with that 5nine released 5nine Cloud Security 8.1 which supports Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V 2016.

5nine Cloud Security has some unique key features to secure your environment.

Integration and offerings

5Nine Cloud Security also integrated perfectly in your Microsoft System Center environment using a System Center Virtual Machine Manager plugin.

5nine Cloud Security also offers a Windows Azure Pack Resource Provider to offer self-service to your tenants. Azure Pack (WAP) Extension is the only Security as a Service (SECaaS) solution to protect your datacenter, your customers, and their clouds as a free add-on to 5nine Cloud Security. It is the only way to enable tenants to easily manage their own Windows and Linux security policies through the Azure Pack self-service portal. Now hosting and service providers can secure multi-tenant environments and virtual machines in private, hosted or hybrid scenarios, while giving users the ability to easily configure firewalls, intrusion detection, and more.

Architecture

The installation and the management is so easy, you don’t really need any documentation. That’s how a security product should work, it should not make your environment even more complex it should help you to keep your environment secure without adding extra complexity to it. Is used 5nine for several customer environments.

The Management Service – This would be your 5nine management server which needs a SQL database (minimum MS SQL Express) and all Hyper-V Hosts are connected to this management server.

The Host Management Service – which is basically the software and agent running on the Hyper-V host itself.

The Management Console – The console where you can configure everything. The console is simply connected to the management server.

The Virtual Machine Manager Plugin – This is a plugin in VMM which allows you to manage rules directly from your System Center Virtual Machine Manager Console

Impressions

5nine is a very light weight solution for the Hyper-V host with not a lot of overhead. On the Hyper-V host you have only two service running and the Hyper-V switch extensions.

Conclusion

Overall I think 5Nine Cloud Security is a must have solution to protect your Hyper-V environment, if you want to do more serious centralized managed security. Especially with the release of 5nine Cloud Security 8.1 directly with the release of Windows Server 2016, 5nine shows how great their development and integration in Hyper-V really is. It always supports the latest features of Hyper-V solve real world needs.

If you need more information, want to buy 5nine Cloud Security or if you need someone to help you integrated 5nine Cloud Security in your environment, feel free to contact me.

Today, I am proud to announce that I am speaking at the ITCamp in Cluj Napoca, Romania. I am super exiceded since this will be my first visit to Romania and I heard a lot of great feedback about the conference.

I will present two sessions:

Nano Server – The Future of Windows Server

Nano Server is the future of Windows Server. With Nano Server Microsoft created the foundation for Windows Server for the next 20 year. In this session you will get an overview about Nano Server and see some great live demos how you can deploy, manage and operate Nano Server as well as creating applications for it.

Get a better understanding of Nano Server and see how you deploy, manage and operate it.

What’s new in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V

With the next version of Microsoft hypervisor Microsoft released some great new features for your Cloud infrastructure. Come to this session to get the details of all the new stuff that is in Hyper-V and learn about how you can play with it “hands-on.” This session includes also the latest updates from the Technical Previews.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) provides some great automation benefits for those organizations that can afford the hefty price tag. However, if SCVMM isn’t a cost effective solution for your business, what are you to do? While VMM certainly makes automation much easier, you can achieve a good level of automation with PowerShell and the applicable PowerShell modules for Hyper-V, clustering, storage, and more.

Are you looking to get grips with automation and scripting?

Join Thomas Maurer, Microsoft Datacenter and Cloud Management MVP, who will use this webinar to show you how to achieve automation in your Hyper-V environments, even if you don’t have SCVMM.

Remember, any task you have to do more than once, should be automated. Bring some sanity to your virtual environment by adding some scripting and automation know-how to your toolbox.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) provides some great automation benefits for those organizations that can afford the hefty price tag. However, if SCVMM isn’t a cost effective solution for your business, what are you to do? While VMM certainly makes automation much easier, you can achieve a good level of automation with PowerShell and the applicable PowerShell modules for Hyper-V, clustering, storage, and more.

Are you looking to get grips with automation and scripting?

Join Thomas Maurer, Microsoft Datacenter and Cloud Management MVP, who will use this webinar to show you how to achieve automation in your Hyper-V environments, even if you don’t have SCVMM.

Remember, any task you have to do more than once, should be automated. Bring some sanity to your virtual environment by adding some scripting and automation know-how to your toolbox.

Register for the webinar here

About

My Name is Thomas Maurer. Microsoft MVP. Work as a Cloud Architect for itnetX, a consulting and engineering company located in Switzerland. I am focused on Microsoft Technologies, especially Microsoft Cloud & Datacenter solutions based Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Virtualization and Microsoft Azure.